Short of Forever
by Matriaya
Summary: a series of Middleman drabbles put forth by an IPOD shuffle challenge. all MM/WW


Title: Short of Forever

Author: Matriaya

Summary: a series of shorts born of an IPOD drabble challenge, all MM/WW.

Word Count: 1760

**Angel's Lament – Brobdingnagian Bards**

"Vampires?" Wendy looked up skeptically. "Really?" Then her face lit up with a mischievous grin that Middleman couldn't help but mirror on his own.

"Can I be Buffy?" She grinned. She ran a few steps ahead, and mimicked the famous television character by pulling off a smooth roundhouse kick, taught to her by Sensei Ping.

"This is no time to be emulating fictional people, Dubbie!" he chastised, though he couldn't make his smile disappear. "This is serious. There is real danger ahead."

It was obvious by that point, however, that she wasn't listening anymore. Dreams of stakes and attractive vampires danced in her head.

**War – The Cardigans**

The rhythmic beat of drums slipped gently off the wall of the nightclub where Lacey and Wendy decided to spend their evening off. Even before they reached the dance floor, Wendy's body twisted fluidly to the music.

The Middleman pushed his way past necking couples and smoking men in heavy make-up in an attempt to locate his partner. The world needed saving! Why wasn't she answering her watch? He suspected the overwhelming rhythms had a little something to do with it. She probably couldn't even hear the darn thing over the pulse of drums. His sharp eyes scanned the crowd, and located her in an instant.

Her limbs twined sensually with Lacey's as the two best friends lost themselves in the music. Middleman was momentarily lost in the scene, worshiping the movement of her body with his eyes.

**Crush – Jennifer Page**

_This is ridiculous_, Wendy thought as she slammed the door of her dressing room open and leaned momentarily against the mahogany wood. _I don't have a crush on my boss._ Sexy Boss Man was, in fact, rather attractive, there was no denying that. But it was no reason to turn seven different shades of red and choke up just because she saw him in a towel! They'd been in more compromising situations in the past, and at least one of them involved less clothes than that. Still, she couldn't stop her pulse from racing.

He could probably hear her heart from where he was standing, she thought, and quickly crossed the room. Her clothes dropped to the floor one by one. She shed them in an attempt to shed the feelings, but only one half of the scenario worked.

Caught up in the torrent of her thoughts, she didn't hear the door quietly squeak open, nor see the man in the doorway with eyebrows peaked up in interest.

It took a full minute of watching her before he was able to speak.

"Um… Dubbie?"

**I Do – Placebo**

_I wanna paint the town with you  
And tickle you until you scream_

Middleman was certainly not a child. In fact, he counted childish actions below him. Years as a Navy Seal taught him that immature impulses were incredibly unproductive, and had no place in the life of a Middleman. Yet as he dug his fingers into the sensitive, ticklish places of Wendy's body, he found the resulting screams that burst from her mouth to be absolutely addicting.

"No! Stop!" she cackled, squirming under his ministrations. "I can't breathe! I can't…"

Any further words were lost in a new fit of giggles.

**Cassandra's Waltz – Murray Gold**

Smooth fingers slipped into his hand, and he took her waist with all the delicacy of a proper gentleman.

One two three, one two three…

The music sent them spinning across the floor. In a room full of aliens, both Wendy and the Middleman knew they should be attempting to track down their culprit – the infamous shape shifting alien from Kloran.

His concentration kept slipping to the delicate frame in his arms, the scent of her soft hair.

One two three, one two three…

"Can you see her?" Wendy asked. She hadn't been able to tear her eyes away from his famed pillow lips since he pulled her out on the floor. Any notion of actually catching the bad guy went out the window the moment his thumb began tracing lazy circles on the small of her back.

"Not yet," he pulled her closer ever so slowly and whispered into her hair, "but will find her, Dubbie."

**Rapture – iiO**

_Sugar, you make my soul complete, rapture tastes so sweet_.

Life had narrowed down to this one moment, a moment that drifted by in impossible slowness only to speed up an instant later and disappear in a blink.

They were running, endlessly it seemed, down a corridor of fire and death. Bodies littered the ground, riddled with the bullets that ultimately were meant for them.

Wendy took the corner at a breakneck speed, but barely had time to react to the firing squad of guns waiting for them just beyond the bend. The first shot exited the gun just a split second after Middleman reached his long fingers out and snagged Wendy's shirt, yanking her backwards into the relative safety of the shield of concrete.

"Careful Dubbie, these guys go off like firecrackers."

Leave it to Middleman to quip at a time like this.

He cocked his head to one side, gesturing to a small side room that would provide them shelter, at least temporarily. Without hesitation, she ducked into the room. He followed quickly, shutting the heavy metal door behind them.

Wendy turned around to question their next move, but she barely her mouth open before his lips crushed down on hers, hot and desperate. The air left her in a rush. Even the sound of the bad guys beating down the doors became obsolete. It was only him, her, and the blood rushing in her ears.

As he yanked his mouth away, he looked down at her with fierce, angry eyes.

"Don't ever rush into danger like that again, Wendy." He whispered, and then blundered off down an adjoining hallway without so much as an explanation.

**Try Again – Keane**

Whiskey slopped onto the table as Wendy poured yet another shot glass, and then shoved it eagerly in the Middleman's direction.

"Nope, try again." She giggled. Middleman cocked one perfect eyebrow, and picked up the glass with his nimble fingers.

"Alice." He guessed. This only drew another fit of laughter from her cherry lips. She rocked back in her chair, clutching her sides as she gasped for air.

"ALICE? You think my middle name is Alice?" she managed between chortles.

"Dubbie, you lied on your application. I shouldn't have had to drink for that first guess." He replied, but lifted the glass to his lips anyway, and poured its contents down his throat. The whiskey seared a path down his esophagus. He didn't even flinch.

"Next guess?" she held up the bottle with a grin. This time, he took the bottle from her unsteady hands, making sure their fingers overlapped as he did. The unmasked look of shock that crossed her face was more than worth the 6 shots he'd taken.

"Why don't I ask the questions for a while?" he said smoothly, and poured another drink.

**Anna Rose – Vienna Teng**

"Her name was Anna Rose Geralee." Middleman stared emotionlessly down at the small child lying dead in the back alley. Wendy had already thrown up the contents of her lunch behind an empty cardboard box.

She saw dreams reflected in the small child's dead eyes. Laughter and giddiness. New love, happiness, and a lifetime of memories that she would never experiences. In those eyes, Wendy also saw herself – her own haunted past. Middleman glanced up very briefly and saw the pain on his partner's face. Worry became his ally.

One day, they would have that conversation – the conversation that would release all her demons. Not today. Today, they would lay the small child to rest, and go their separate ways. Deal with the horror of a dead child in their own way.

**The World – Yuki Kajiura**

One of the worst things about this job, Wendy Watson thought, was being tied down. Or tied up. Either one was really the pitts. It didn't take a total genius to figure out that she was in serious trouble this time. Whatever made her think she could take on a whole clan of man-hating, half naked Amazons by herself was completely beyond her. Still, here she was, tied to a stone slab, about to be sacrificed to some nameless Tiki god or another to bring these savage women more good luck.

Just lovely.

"Stop right there!" Middleman's voice boomed through the stone walls of the cave. Every single head in the room turned, and each pair of lungs drew in a gasp. Except Wendy. She just smiled. She knew all along that he'd come, of course. He always seemed to turn up right when she needed him. "Unhand my partner, and we will leave you in peace."

Snarls pulled taunt the lips of the bare-breasted women. They all seemed to momentarily forget their sacred ritual at the new threat brought on by the appearance of the man.

The Middleman threw an exasperated look at Wendy as he crouched into a fighting stance.

"Hold tight there Dubbie," he said, "I'll be there in a second."

**Melodies of Life Piano – Nobuo Uematsu**

He can play the piano, she thought incredulously.

It never occurred to her that the Middleman might actually have a life outside of his job – he certainly never seemed to.

Hobbies? Never. At least not ones that didn't involved aliens and green goo. As Wendy stared in the small room in Middleman Headquarters containing an old and probably very expensive piano, though, she was thrown for a loop.

He sat at the piano, long fingers dancing over the keys as he coaxed a sad, haunting melody from its wooden depths. His face betrayed emotion so seldom displayed as he listened to the music he made.

Wendy stared in shock at this whole new side to her boss. Gone was his normally cheerful, upbeat expression. The music that drifted through the room to her spying ears was unlike anything she'd heard – with the darkness of Chopin, but with a modern twist that brought the notes to an ethereal plane she'd never heard out of music.

Suddenly, she felt as if she were intruding. Perhaps this was a private part of his life he didn't want anyone to see. Still, she could force herself to leave. She was hooked.


End file.
